D&D 5E Spells with attack rolls, do you avoid them?

[Blue]

That is the Law of the High Initiative/Skill Check Roll at work again. A sure sign it will be a night of 3's and 4's for attack rolls.

Oh, how true is that.

I'm playing in a campaign and I got my first critical hit in combat after getting to 12th level from 1st (4e), took over 2 YEARS of bi-weekly play. But I sure did make those darn skill rolls and had great initiative (if by great you mean beats all of our defenders and melee strikers so my melee healer could run into combat alone).

 

[Weiley31]

My buddy's Warlock doesn't seem to have an issue with Attack Roll spells. His issue seems to stem from the fact he keeps on rolling low damage on his spells when it comes to the Damage Rolls. And this discourages him decently. He rolled low Damage Rolls yet again tonight. I tried telling him that's how the Dice can be at times. But its still something that he's not fond of.

 

[Deset Gled]

My buddy's Warlock doesn't seem to have an issue with Attack Roll spells.

Two things here.

First, the Warlock doesn't really face the same "cost" of potentially wasting a spell with a bad attack roll the way other full casters do, because they recover slots on a short rest. It's really a much bigger question for a wizard or cleric that only gets spells back once a day.

Second, in case you weren't aware, this thread is almost 7 years old.

 

[AtomicPope]

Depends on the build. Wizards typically don't build for attack roll spells and neither do Clerics. I think that's because neither class gets lots of gear that helps them with attack rolls. AC can rise quickly but pretty much all monsters have one bad save. Wizards have lots of saves to choose from while attack spells only give you AC as the option. When AC is high you either cast Magic Missile or choose a save they probably won't make. Last but not least, save-for-half spells are rarely considered a "waste" since you always do damage. Wizards and Clerics never know what they'll be getting a long rest. That's also what makes cantrips so popular. Why cast Guiding Light and miss when there's a perfectly good Sacred Flame waiting for you?

 

[Shiroiken]

I try to have a mix of options. Attack spells are sometimes better, especially against a caster that might have low ac, but high saves. Magic Resistance is a thing too, making the attack rolls somewhat more useful. Something else that is often overlooked, is the 5% chance to crit on those spells, which can be ridiculous damage.

 

[Stoutstien]

Plenty of ways to augment attack rolls to counter mediocre values and caster also have half effect with saves and even automatic damage like MM or cloud of daggers.
Generally casters are already a tad too good at chipping HP away that the occasional chain of missed spell attacks is a pretty small issue.

 

[Krachek]

Also avoid spell with save that prevent any effects?

 

[Staffan]

5e doesn't really have all that many attack roll spells. They exist, but are fairly rare. Even many spells whose flavor text sound like they should be attack roll spells, e.g. enervation, use saves instead. I remember noticing this when I was considering rolling a wild sorcerer and exploiting getting advantage on attacks to focus on attack roll spells which would presumably be balanced around high risk/reward, and not really finding any good ones. And the one low-level spell that used attack rolls was scorching ray, which splits the damage over multiple rays, meaning that getting advantage on one attack doesn't help much.

In Pathfinder 2 I avoid them like I thought people would avoid the plague, because they don't do anywhere near enough damage on a successful attack to balance out the loss of half damage on a successful save, particularly when facing higher-level opponents (which is when you'd want to use single-target spells – multiple weak foes calls for AOEs instead).

 

[Oofta]

I use what makes sense. Big brute with low AC? Attack. Tank in heavy armor? Dex saves if possible. Really depends on the situation and the target(s). My cleric regularly waded into combat with spirit guardians and spiritual weapon up, it can be a fun combo so two-two-two-mints in one!

 

[abirdcall]

It's not that I don't like attack roll spells, it's just that those spells are weak.

Guiding Bolt is probably the best one but I don't like playing Clerics. If I was playing a Wild Magic Sorcerer I'd be into them as I can get Advantage to the attack rolls. That's probably the best case for them. High chance to hit and a decent chance to crit with big damage.

There are probably other cases I'd use them but not many.

I have 0 attack roll spells on my top spells lists and only a few direct damage ones. I've got Magic Missile as #7 and Dissonant Whispers as #8 for 1st level spells. Heat Metal at #7 on 2nd level. Fireball at #1, Spirit Guardians at #5, and Hunger of Hadar at #7 for 3rd level spells.